February 6, 2017

State Supreme Court upholds closed primary system

An attempt to open primaries failed after the state Supreme Court ruled against an Albuquerque resident.

David Crum, who is registered to vote but is not affiliated with any political party, sought to end the closed primary system, saying it violates a portion of the state constitution.

The State Supreme Court upheld a district court ruling dismissing the case, saying that the current restrictions requiring that primary voters be registered with a major political party at least 28 days before the primary and only allowing voters to vote in primaries of that party were “reasonably modest burdens which further the State’s interests in securing the purity of and efficiently administering primary elections.”

The Republican Party of New Mexico opposed Crum’s suit and said it would “unconstitutionally infringe on RPNM’s freedom of association,” according to the Supreme Court ruling. A state district court agreed and granted the party’s motion to dismiss. Crum appealed the dismissal, prompting the Supreme Court to review the case.

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The Democratic Party of New Mexico did not participate in the case.

There is one bill to open primaries to unaffiliated voters, proposed by Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard, D-Los Alamos, and Rep. Jim Dines, R-Albuquerque. That bill would allow unaffiliated voters to vote in one of the major party primaries. It would not allow Republicans to vote in Democratic primaries or vice versa, which is allowed in some states.

A proposed constitutional amendment would change the primary system in New Mexico for congressional, legislative and most county positions. There would be one primary for each election, with all candidates from all parties on the same ballot. The top two candidates would move on to the general election.

Other states, like California and Louisiana, currently have these “jungle primaries” in place.

Both bills are currently scheduled to be heard in the House Local Government, Elections, Land Grants and Cultural Affairs Committee this Thursday.

A few weeks ago, we reported on a proposal by Augustin Plains Ranch, LLC to build a pipeline and pump 54,000 acre-feet of water each year from the aquifer to the Albuquerque area. The 37 wells would all be in Catron County near the town of Datil.

Two Democrats joined with four Republican senators in a committee vote Wednesday to effectively kill a proposed constitutional amendment that would tap into New Mexico's Land Grant Permanent Fund to help pay for early childhood educationThe vote in the Senate Rules Committee to table House Joint Resolution 1 likely puts an end to what has become a perennial effort take an extra 1 percent of interest earnings from the $15 billion endowment to spend on early childhood programs.If approved by voters, the proposal would have generated about $153 million in the first year for early childhood education, increasing to $163 million by the third year it was in place. The Democrats voting against the resolution were Senate President Pro-tem Mary Kay Papen of Las Cruces and Sen. Clemente Sanchez of Grants.

Both the House and Senate recessed Thursday afternoon—without officially ending the special session. Now, the governor has three days to take action on four bills aimed at tax changes and reinstating funding to the Legislative branch and institutes of higher education.

An Albuquerque mayoral hopeful who sued the city and said she was wrongfully disqualified from the ballot is now taking her case to the New Mexico Supreme Court. Stella Padilla sued the city, specifically naming City Clerk Natalie Howard, in an attempt to get her name on the city ballot this October.

Matthew Reichbach is the editor of the NM Political Report. The former founder and editor of the NM Telegram, Matthew was also a co-founder of New Mexico FBIHOP with his brother and part of the original hirings at the groundbreaking website the New Mexico Independent. Matthew has covered events such as the Democratic National Convention and Netroots Nation and formerly published, “The Morning Word,” a daily political news summary for NM Telegram and the Santa Fe Reporter.Matthew has appeared as a panelist for the Society of Professional Journalists’ New Mexico Chapter’s panel on covering New Mexico politics and the legislature.A native New Mexican from Rio Rancho, Matthew’s family has been in New Mexico since the 1600s.